


Summer adventures

by Starlawolf



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Female pronouns for Grell, Modern Setting, Summer Vacation, relationships can be seen only if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-12-09 15:17:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11671719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starlawolf/pseuds/Starlawolf
Summary: a huge heatwave has hit all of Europe and the reapers have been given a chance to enjoy the summer break. Join the whole gang as they take to the road, full of funny moments, dance parties, William being annoyed, Grell in a bikini, and more! Wait.. what?





	Summer adventures

**Author's Note:**

> Road trip!  
> Setting:  
> Grim reaper realm,  
> June 2017

....  
It was bright.  
Blindingly bright.  
The sun shone high in the sky and not a single cloud could be spotted for what seemed like miles. It was so hot that you could practically see the heat radiating off the pavement in waves.  
The streets were as clear as the sky, as everyone was indoors or vacationing. Only the bravest would actually work today, even the officials had taken the day off.  
Who cares if they had to do an extra day's overtime? The reaper realm as well as the human world had been hit with the worst heat wave in decades.  
William T. Spears sat on the old wooden lawn chair that decorated the balcony in front of his 2nd floor apartment, fanning himself with the book he had been reading.  
He sighed, it was so hot that the cover of  the book was starting to burn his hand.  
Oh well, finally a peaceful day without work.  
"Hey Will! How's the weather up there?!"  
I stand corrected.  
William forced himself to stand up and looked over the railing. The red-haired reaper that was Grell Sutcliff was waving at him from the street below.  
"Sutcliff, what are you doing outside?" He called down to her in annoyance. "There's not a single soul out for miles!  ..wait a moment, are you barefoot?!"  
The pavement was like molten lava, and yet there she stood, in nothing but blue shorts and a red tank top in the middle of the empty street.  
"I like extremes, darling! You should know that by now~" She exclaimed, the sunlight reflecting off her hair blindingly enhanced the bright red.  
William squinted his eyes. "And why in the world are you dressed like that?"  
"I was just headed to the beach, of course!"  
"Its nearly 90 degrees!"  
"Like I said, extremes! I was wondering if you would like to come along but it seems like you really aren't interested." She pouted.  
"Of course I'm not-"  
She cut him off with an overly dramatic gesture. "Oh, for goodness sake, it's been hard enough to get in contact with anyone in this heat wave!"  
...  
"No."  
"But-"  
"No!"  
"I'll do all of my work for once, I don't mind! Please~?"  
A sigh, so this is what it would take? "Alright, wait just a minute."  
William opened his glass door and went back inside, he quickly grabbed a few of his belongings and stuffed them in a bag in case they would be spending the entire day.  
When he finally left the building and exited out onto the sidewalk, she was still waiting in the same spot in the street, inspecting her nails impatiently.  
Grell noticed him and looked up. "Shall we go now?"  
He nodded.  
HONK  
Grell jumped out of the way in a flash as a huge van came speeding down the street. The car sped past William's apartment building, then screeched to a stop, and drove back down the street in reverse, stopping when it reached the place where Grell had just been standing.  
The driver's window was rolled down and Ronald Knox waved to them from his place at the driver's seat.  
"Hey guys!" He exclaimed. "Check it out, a friend lent me this awesome ride for the week!"  
Observing the vehicle, William almost thought about removing his glasses and cleaning them to make sure he was seeing clearly.  
It was HUGE. The van had 3 levels on it, each row lined with windows, making it look like an airplane on wheels. From what he could see through the glass panes, the bottom was decorated like a living room, there was a kitchen near the back with a door that lead out to a tiny balcony. The second floor had a huge front window. There were tattered curtains drawn across all the windows on that level, flashing lights could be seen from inside and he figured it was a party room. The 3rd level had small airplane-like windows, also with curtains drawn. It was probably a bed room. On top of all that, there was railing on the top. Another level?  
One of the windows on the 2nd level slid open, causing the muffled sound of club music to blast ten times louder, echoing off the walls of the nearby buildings. William silently thanked whatever forces above that most of his neighbors were gone at the moment, otherwise he would never hear the end of it.  
You really need to chose your friends better.. He silently scolded himself.  
Sascha grinned at them from the opened window, wearing flashing disco glasses in place of normal reaper ones before slamming the window shut and turning the volume up even louder from inside. Faintly muffled shouting in German could be heard and William figured it was probably Ludger complaining.  
"Guys! You have got to check this out!"  
There was a splashing of water from the very top of the van and Eric Slingby appeared over the rail, adjusting a pair of goggles. "There's a mini pool up here!"  
Grell squealed in delight.  
"What is all this about?" William turned to Ronald, raising an eyebrow.  
"I'm taking everyone here to this super awesome beach-side city! Even those two from the German dispatch flew in, I picked them up at the airport. I stopped by Grell's but she wasn't home, your place is the last stop before the main highway, so I'm glad I found you both here."  
Grell grinned in William's direction. "We were just headed to the local beach, weren't we Will?"  
"Unfortunately, we were."  
"Great! Then you can come with us instead!" Ronald exclaimed. "The place we're headed is way nicer, I assure you."  
"And busier." William pointed out.  
"Oh, who cares?!" Eric called from the top again. "Southern Bay city is amazing!"  
"And the busier it is, the more hot guys there will be!" Grell was grinning like a Cheshire cat. "Count me in!!"  
William could practically see the hearts floating off her and he rolled his eyes, turning to Ronald. "Fine, I will come as well.. I will supervise."  
"Heck yeah!" Ronald yelled. "Road trip!"  
~  
~  
"What do you want? We have lemonade, water, beer, iced tea, soda," Othello was showing them to the small fridge and mini-bar that was connected to the kitchen on the first level.  
"I will pour myself a glass of iced water, thank you." William told him.  
"Is there wine, by any chance?" Grell asked.  
"Yeah! It's in that closet over there, help yourself." Othello pointed towards the location and Grell happily skipped over and opened it, taking out a bottle after a moment of looking.  
"Where do all these drinks come from?" William asked as he poured the water into a cup filled with ice.  
"Oh, they're from my place."  
"The wine as well?" William raised an eyebrow.  
Othello laughed. "No, of course not! That was there when I got here." He then frowned in thought. "Could've sworn they were collecting dust."  
Out of the corner of his eye, William saw Grell grimace and put the bottle she was holding back into the closet.  
"Has anyone seen the sunscreen?" Alan appeared, looking at them from the ladder to the next level.  
"I suppose you can use mine." William walked over to his bag and grabbed the bottle. He wasn't planning on using it anyways. He handed it to Alan, who thanked him and retreated back up the ladder. Must be going to swim on the top level.  
William turned back around only to find  that Grell had now started making herself a cocktail out of some of the other things she discovered in the cupboards and Othello had taken out a laptop and begun typing away.  
Ah, that's right. Most reapers in the collections division had the whole week off but he probably still had business to do seeing that the forensics division didn't have to do field work and wasn't really affected.  
Come to think of it... The heatwave must have hit the entirety of Europe if even the German dispatch had some time off.  
"You're not just going to stand there, are you?" Grell asked him from her place in the kitchen, standing with the drink in her hand.  
"And what is there I could possibly do on this trip? I have no clue why I even made the decision to tag along." William stated.  
"Grell, you shouldn't just talk people into things if they don't want to." Othello told her from his place on the couch.  
"Oh, please." She flipped her hair. "Now put that computer away or search up YouTube, because I'm not letting you waste your time on essays."  
The sounds of typing stopped and Othello paused to stare at her, a blank look on his face. "Grell, this is my work."  
In a flash of movement, she placed her drink on the counter, strode forward, and snatched the device out of Othello's hands.  
"Hey! At least let me save the document first!"  
William looked at them, rolled his eyes, and turned and climbed up the ladder to the next floor.  
He was greeted by an unusual sight, Sascha was wearing all sorts of neon glowing items, dancing around as if drunk while hardcore electronic music played blasted at full volume. Not to mention the room had a black light setting turned on and a disco ball hung it he corner of the room, reflecting shining lights from somewhere.  
It looked like, as many of the young humans would call it nowadays, a "rave party".  
While Sascha was busy headbanging and jumping around, Ludger leaned out the window on the left smoking a cigar.  
They looked quite lost in their own things, he supposed he would check the top level, it was probably much more quiet up there.  
Ah, he cursed himself for forgetting to take his bag of belongings from downstairs, now he would have to go back down and confront *those two* again.  
He'll just go down there for a moment. Maybe Othello had taken his computer back and they weren't listening to YouTube.  
...  
As it turns out they were, the two were watching some sort of music video and singing along to... was that Korean?  
"ssak da bultaewora! bow wow wow!"  
He snatched his bag and raced back upstairs. Definitely not going to stay there to find out.  
The 3rd floor bedroom was empty apart from a few beach items strewn about the floor from a couple of bags. Ah, so Alan and Eric were on the top level.  
He unlocked the... trap door.. latch.. thing.. at the top of the ladder and was greeted with a strong gust of wind that blew his hair around his face until it had become an absolute mess. He tossed his bag into a lawn chair, practically crawling in order to avoid being blown over the railing. What the heck were they even thinking? How can they actually tolerate being up here? And most curious of all, HOW FAST WAS RONALD DRIVING?!  
Once he had managed to claw his way onto the lawn chair, he risked a glance over the railing. Trees sped by against a slower-moving background of hills. There were homes here-and-there. Most of those countryside types were owned by retired reapers, as those still employed lived closer to the city in which their division stationed to avoid any complications with transportation (As well as to avoid any co-mingling between divisions. Unfortunately it only took Grell a month of community service at the forensics division for her to befriend Othello)  
As he became lost in thought, he hadn't noticed that Ronald had cut through all five lanes to get to the other side of the freeway. The trees were suddenly a lot closer now, and the lower branches of a pine tree hit him in the face, finally bringing him back to reality as well as knocking his glasses off. He heard laughing and turned to see the blurry outline of Alan Humphries in the lawn chair next to him.  
"Do not laugh, please return my glasses to me."  
Alan, still snickering slightly, picked up the spectacles from the floor and gave them back to William, who put them on quickly.  
With a splash of water, Eric looked up from the pool. For some reason he was wearing a snorkel now. Had he been there all day? Was he trying to become a fish of some sort??  
"Doesn't Ronald realize how tall this thing is? If we're not careful, we'll get our heads torn off by a bunch of trees!" He exclaimed.  
All three ducked as another tree branch sped past.  
"As.. dangerous.. as it is up here. It is probably the most peaceful spot at the moment." William lay back farther in the lawn chair in a successful attempt to lay out of range from the branches.  
"You do have a point." Alan did the same as Eric ducked back into the mini-pool.  
William lay there looking up at the sky.  The branches of trees became less and less, and the car soon changed lanes. Despite the roaring of the freeway, it was actually rather peaceful.  
~

~  
It was around sunset when William returned back inside. When he looked, Othello and Grell were sitting together on the couch watching some cheesy romantic drama on the computer. Othello sniffled and was too busy stuffing his face with potato chips to notice that Grell was clinging to him and sobbing into his shoulder.  
William resisted the urge to roll his eyes, deciding it was about time he checked on Ronald. It was getting late and if the others would not take the time to sleep, he would.  
"Hey Will, how's it going?" Ronald spoke without even taking his eyes off the road.  
"Actually, I was just going to retire for the night."  
"Alright then, where are you sleeping?"  
"The third floor, why should you ask?"  
"Actually that main bedroom only sleeps about two. Eric and Alan were the first people here after me, so they claimed it for themselves."  
Oh, so it was 'first come, first serve'..  
"I'll take the huge chair on the first level then." William responded.  
Ronald shook his head. "That's Othello's"  
"What about the pull-out bed across from it?"  
"Grell already claimed that."  
"I am not sure how I would sleep there, but.. The bean bag chair in the party room?"  
"Ludger's"  
"The lawn chairs on the very top? Wait- let me guess, they are Sascha's?"  
"Nope! that one's mine when we find a place to pull over for the night. Sascha's not sleeping at all."  
"Then am I allowed to-"  
"No. Come to think of it, every place is taken. Buuuut....There's the balcony out-back! There's room for a person if you sleep in the right position."  
"Please tell me you are joking."  
"I wish. So, are you taking it?"  
...what is this torture?  
"Only once you stop the car." William sighed. This was going to be a long night.  
~

~  
A sudden stinging cold feeling woke him and William sat up, coughing and sputtering on water. Grell stood at the door with a now-empty pitcher, grinning childishly.  
"Good morning~ Ronnie's about to start driving again and he wanted me to wake everyone."  
"Could you have used a better method of waking me?."  
She only laughed, walking over to the door and opening it, going back indoors.  
William looked at the beach towel he had been using as a makeshift bed, he picked it up and began to fold it. The towel, as well as his clothes barley had any drops of water on them. Leave it to Grell Sutcliff and her perfect aim.  
Oh, honestly.. It was still dark outside! Days were supposed to be longer in the summer, so if the sun hadn't even risen yet. WHAT TIME WAS IT?!  
He stood up, towel in hand, and followed Grell through the door. She had already disappeared and he figured she was already off waking up everyone else.  
He crossed over to the front of the car to let Ronald know he was awake. He had to step around a sleeping Othello, who was curled up on the carpet hugging a pillow like his life depended on it. From what William heard, Othello had a habit of staying up really late and then falling asleep in the weirdest of places, it's no wonder Grell let him be. He wasn't even sleeping on the chair he had claimed, how annoying!  
When William opened the door to the driver's compartment, Ronald was sitting with his legs up on the dashboard, sipping a cup of Starbucks coffee.  
"Morning, Will." Ronald grinned. "What's up?"  
"Not the sun, that's for sure." William responded with an annoyed grumble.  
"It's 4:30 am." Ronald tapped his wristwatch. "I wanna be on the road before sunrise. We'll be there by noon at this rate."  
"I see." William yawned. The effects of Grell's wake-up were wearing off and he was beginning to feel tired again. "Do you have any more coffee by chance?"  
"I brought mine with me. It's pretty cold now, you wouldn't want it. Besides it's not like there's running water or a stove on this car."  
"Dare I ask how the bathroom on the second floor works then?"  
"Nope, I don't know either."  
"Breakfast~ Get down here, all of you!" Grell called out as if she was a teacher addressing a school class on a field trip.  
Ronald put down his cup of coffee. "Well, I better get this car started soon. Grell went shopping at the grocery store nearby, hopefully bought some good stuff." He told William.  
So she hadn't given the others the same wake-up call? She was out shopping?! Oh what was he thinking, of course she would choose to torture him and only him.  
William left Ronald in his attempt to figure out which key started the car again and  returned to find everyone scattered in various parts of the main room.  
Grell was standing next to a large pile of bagels and an even larger pile of muffins, the breakfast supplies probably. Alan and Eric turned around from their spot talking on the carpet to wave to William. Sascha's head made contact with the kitchen counter in a loud "thump", the young reaper finally falling asleep which prompted Ludger to mumble something under his breath.  
Othello was yelling at his computer, tapping furiously on the keyboard as he blindly dumped a bottle of hot sauce on a taco, stuffing it in his face. "How could you kill Tracer?! What is wrong with you?! You're going down, bastard!"  
William approached Grell and quickly grabbed a bagel and a cup of iced green tea. Thank goodness she had bought a few of those, the caffeine would surely help him.  
Grell had not even looked up, for she was busy unwrapping a red velvet cupcake she had obviously bought for herself.  
William took his food out onto the balcony, only to be joined by Grell a moment later. She had noticed him then.  
"What's up with you? You don't seem very happy about this trip." She raised an eyebrow.  
He took another sip from his drink. "All I had wanted was a peaceful break, now it is near impossible to find a moment of  relaxation."  
She turned around and leaned her back against the railing. "You knew what you'd get yourself into when you agreed  to come along with us. So why?"  
William looked down at his bagel. He wouldn't admit it, but no matter how annoying the others were, he still considered them to be friends. He had a reputation to keep up, which was why he had stayed as the stern and responsible William.  
After a moment of silence between them, he looked back up.  
"I suppose... I am enjoying this trip... Just from a different perspective." That was it.. He would rather stand on the side and observe instead of deciding to join the activities. It was like watching a movie where he was merely an unimportant side character who was barley seen in the background for most of the time.  
"..Maybe you could change that perspective!" Grell exclaimed. "Try something new for a change! This isn't work, you're on vacation so you might as well make the most of it!"  
"...I can try. However, Sutcliff, what is it you have in mind?" He was probably about to make the worst decision ever, what was he doing actually listening to Grell's advice?  
"Well, finish your breakfast and come back inside. Then I'll tell you." Grell hurried back through the door, giggling suspiciously.  
"What have I just gotten myself into?" William mumbled.  
Several minutes after he had finished his breakfast, there was a blast of fumes, and the van started backing out of its parking spot.  
Ronald must have finally found the right key.  
William took this as the right time to go back inside. Only, he was greeted by a strange sight: everyone was nowhere to be seen, the lights were also off and as someone who had just stood outside and watched the sunrise, he could barley see a thing. When his eyes adjusted, he noticed the various lamps around the room had been lit, giving a very dim lighting to the atmosphere. A chess game board sat in the middle of the carpet between the couch and the TV.  
Who brought that along with them?  
It all happened so quickly, he barley registered. In a moment, everyone sprang up from behind various pieces of furniture with a yell of "surprise!"  
Alan ran up to William, put a flower crown on his head, and scuttled away quickly.  
"What in the world is all this?" William demanded, in his flustered state he decided to leave the headpiece as it was.  
"Grell bought some stuff for you when she went out shopping this morning." Eric grinned.  
Grell laughed. "I was hiding the bags under all those muffins and bagels but you didn't even notice. You seemed so left out, so we wanted to find a way to include you in everything!"  
"You don't mind, do you?" Alan piped up.  
William looked around at everyone's smiling faces. "This is... definitely unexpected. I honestly don't know what to say.. I thought-"  
"Let's not forget this!" Othello flipped open a box, revealing its contents to be a shaped cake frosted to look like... A pigeon?  
"My favorite animal? I do not even wish to know how Sutcliff got all of this, I must admit it is rather cute.. is it vanilla?"  
Grell winked. "Of course! This little bakery I got the rest of our food at had this custom-made cake thing. They are super quick and it's probably as delicious as it looks!"  
Othello rolled his eyes at her as he set the cake down on the counter, digging through the cabinets until he found a blunt knife.  
Everyone was given a piece of the cake which they happily enjoyed over a game of chess. They had saved Ronald a piece too, making him extremely happy that he was still included in their little party.  
Their final round of chess was cut short as Sascha ran into the room in a cat suit,  Ludger facepalmed as he set down a boombox and pressed the play button. It started to blast music, Japanese this time, as Sascha did some sort of dance. Othello soon joined in after a moment and now everyone was laughing.  
Eric nudged Alan's arm and gave him a laser pointer to which he smiled and turned it on. Of all people he had expected to be distracted by the pointer, Grell's head immediately snapped in the direction of the red light, her head and eyes following the direction Alan waved it in. With a smirk, he focused the light on Othello's backside. She grinned and immediately pounced like a cat, Othello walked up with Grell hanging on to his leg and snatched the laser pointer from Alan's hands. After a moment of silence, everyone burst into laughter.  
And, for the first time throughout the entire trip (and probably in forever as well), William T. Spears laughed too.  
~

~  
Finally, it was the middle of the day as they stood gathered outside the van, bags in hand, everyone was dressed in the beachwear they had brought. Now they were only waiting for three more people.  
"Alright everyone, I'm ready~!" Grell stepped out of the van in... an extremely revealing bikini. Even though the other reapers were used to this by now, it was always slightly disturbing.  
Eric was quick to slap a hand over Alan's eyes, while William's expression remained stoic. Ronald wolf-whistled and was promptly kicked in the shin by Othello.  
Grell giggled. "Oh you all look so hilarious! ...Hm? Othello, I believe the heat is getting to you."  
"What ever do you mean?" Othello quickly wiped away a nosebleed.  
Ronald glared at him just as Sascha and Ludger stepped out of the van. Everyone turned, the German duo wore shorts and t-shirts along with sunglasses, making them look like celebrities. Sascha was carrying a bunch of bags, probably beach items.  
"What are you all staring at?" Ludger demanded.  
"Well I don't know about you guys but I'm looking at that fine lady by that palm tree over there." Ronald licked his lips, earning him a smack over the head from William and a glare from everyone else.  
Sascha grabbed Ludger by the arm, pointing at an empty spot on the beach and exclaiming something in German which clearly made him frown. Sascha practically dragged him as the two left.  
"Well, those seashells aren't going to collect themselves!" Othello ran off as quickly as possible and everyone watched as he gracefully tripped and face-planted into the sand. After a moment, he stood back up and brushed himself off, opting for walking until he disappeared into the crowd.  
"What more could we expect?" Grell laughed heartily. "Oh well, finally some beach time!" She then practically leaped across the beach in a single stride, threw her bags down in a random spot, and dove into the ocean.  
"Hellooo beach babes~" Off went Ronald to who knows where.  
"So much for sticking together." William grumbled.  
"I will go get my book and my hat." Alan shrugged and headed back for the van.  
Eric followed him. "I'll get my tanning lotion."  
"You didn't bring any."  
"Shit."  
William looked around until he spotted a small beachside bar a little while ahead. Maybe he could get a cold drink, finally enjoy the peace he needed. Yes, of course. After such a chaotic trip, a cold beverage in the shade of a palm tree was just what he needed.  
It was summer after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Ooohhh mmmyyy gggooooddd I can't believe I finally finished it! This summer themed fic took me basically the whole break to write. I started this while I was still in school and now I finished it literally a few weeks before summer ends. This is possibly the longest story I have ever written (4000+ words) and I hope it is worth it! Thanks for reading, I still don't know how AO3 works, but I will try to post more in the future.


End file.
